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| April Zachary Rubengera District Western Province |
One of the most exciting things that I learned while in my
pre-service and in-service-training with Peace Corps is how to build a permagarden. This was a training that was created and
taught by Peter Jensen our Peace Corps Permagarden Specialist. A permagarden is
an engineered garden which is designed to hold water, air, minerals and
nutrients deep in the soil. The
structure of it slows the water (from heavy rains) and helps retain water
within the garden structure itself. The
water then seeps deep into soil that has been prepared to receive it and hold
it. One of the many benefits of a permagarden
is that it requires a fraction of the watering that a regular garden does. And it only has to be built once. Once a permagarden is built it is ready to
receive the plantings of seeds and seedlings year-round and for years to come.
I love permagardens.
And I love the idea that permagardening can help families in the
villages of Rwanda (and throughout the world) create a means for feeding their
families nutritional foods year round, while decreasing the amount of water
that is required to be fetched in order for a kitchen garden (small family
gardens) to flourish. However, I was not in love with the idea that we were
adding yet one more burden of work upon the shoulders of the mothers and women
of the village families.
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| Women Fetching Water |
I came to Rwanda in June 2015. After 10 weeks of intensive training from
Peace Corps I came to my community to live. My first 7 weeks living here was
spent gathering information through a Community Needs Assessment (CNA). During
this time I interviewed staff at the community health center, visited Community
Health Workers in their homes and visited families in their homes. From my very
first visit with the village families I began to see that the mothers were
exhausted. They would never admit to being
tired. But there is a weariness as well
as an acceptance in their eyes. To be tired is not an option. They rise early
in the morning, take care of their children and their husbands and enter the fields
to cultivate by 7 am. The youngest of
their children they take with them to the fields, carrying them on their backs,
even while they take the hoe to soil and dig deep into rich but rocky
soil. They leave the fields somewhere
between noon and 2 pm. But their work is not done. There is still water to fetch, food to find
and meals to cook, as well as children to bath and a home to clean. Here in the
village, there are no faucets conveniently bringing water to their homes. Here water is fetched in 5 gallon jericans. Water weights 8.33 lbs per gallon. That means a full jerican of water weighs
41.65 lbs. Viable water sources are
anywhere from a 10 minute to 2 hour walk from the village home. Mostly it is the mothers and the young women
who fetch the water. They are the quiet
pillars of the family.
Once I learned about permagardens I began to wonder how this
beautifully efficient and engineered eco-system could be brought to the village
family without putting more work upon the shoulders of the village
mothers. And naturally my mind came
around to the village fathers…the second and more visible pillar of the village
family. I thought that, just maybe,
the permagarden would be a family project that a father would take pride in.
A continual question that I hold in my mind, as I live in my
community, is how can
we inspire fathers, within the villages, to want to be more
of a part of the inter-workings of their families’ daily care. I am watching and observing. I believe that
when father and mother join hands in the daily care of their families, when
they become equal pillars in the structure of their home, a force is created
that is unstoppable. It builds strength, unity of purpose, pride and
creativity. It builds a working,
efficient team that can go on to create a means of escape from the cycle of
poverty.
I was a firefighter
for nearly 25 years. I lived and worked with men in a communal atmosphere (the
firehouse), day in and day out, for years.
One thing I learned is that men are not opposed to domestic work. Some of them love to cook, garden and yes
even clean! Most of the men I worked
with took pride in cooking (We had to rotate cooking. It was required). Many times we planted a garden. The men who
planted gardens nurtured them like they were their babies. Whether we like to cook, clean, build or
garden is not determined by our gender.
If we enjoy these things but are ashamed to participate in them…then
this is a culturally imposed belief!
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| Modeste and an enthusiastic group of men building a permagarden |
Just recently we had a 3 day Permagarden Training in my
community taught by Modeste Nsabimana.
Modeste works with Peace Corps Rwanda.
He has a degree in Agribusiness and Rural Development as well as in
Administration and Project Management. He is Rwandan and he is passionate about
teaching permagardening at the village level. He is also an incredible role
model for the men and boys of Rwanda. During
this 3 day training I learned that many of the men of my community love to
garden! It made my heart glad to see these
men’s enthusiasm and willingness to create, to put hands to soil, to prepare
and to plant. Perhaps it is the engineered structure of the permagarden that
they loved or the thoughtfulness of how the soil is prepared, or perhaps it is the
idea that they can actually control and contain the rain water so that these
waters are held and saved deep within the soil so that they can continue to
provide moisture to the plants, even during the dry season, that made them so
enthusiastic about learning this skill. Or perhaps they were given permission to
jump in and be enthusiastic about digging in the dirt for a higher cause by
Modeste being there as a role model. Because Modeste was up to his elbows in dirt!
The belief that domestic work is beneath men or is women’s
work is a learned behavior. A belief
that is inculcated by cultural norms. How do we dissolve old ways in order to
clear the path for healthier norms?
Norms where culture supports strong, unified, healthy, creative families
that work together for a better future for their families? A family whose
mother and father are pillars of strength that bear the weight of caring for
their families equally?
AWESOME project and well written April!
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